Second woman carrying gene-edited baby in China: state media

January 21, 2019

He Jiankui shocked the scientific community last year after announcing he had successfully altered the genes of twin girls born in November to prevent them from contracting HIV

A researcher who claimed to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies will face a Chinese police investigation, state media said Monday, as authorities confirmed that a second woman fell pregnant during the experiment.

He Jiankui shocked the scientific community last year after announcing he had successfully altered the genes of twin girls born in November to prevent them from contracting HIV.

He had told a human genome forum in Hong Kong that there had been "another potential pregnancy" involving a second couple.

A provincial government investigation has since confirmed the existence of the second mother and that the woman was still pregnant, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The expectant mother and the twin girls from the first pregnancy will be put under medical observation, an investigator told Xinhua.

The provincial government probe found He had "forged ethical review papers" and "deliberately evaded supervision," according to Xinhua.

He had "privately" organised a project team that included foreign staff and used "technology of uncertain safety and effectiveness" for illegal human embryo gene-editing, it said.

Investigators told Xinhua that the scientist was "pursuing personal fame" and used "self-raised funds" for the controversial experiment.

Eight volunteer couples—HIV-positive fathers and HIV-negative mothers—signed up to He's trial, investigators found, with one couple later dropping out.

The origins of the CRISPR genome editing technique
Immediate backlash

Details of the experiment—which has not been independently verified—triggered an immediate backlash from the global scientific community and the Chinese government ordered a halt to He's research work days after it was publicly announced.

Such gene-editing work is banned in most countries, including China.

He will be "dealt with seriously according to the law," and his case will be "handed over to public security organs for handling," Xinhua said.

Speaking at the genome summit in Hong Kong in November, He said he was "proud" of altering the genes of the babies, given the stigma affecting AIDS patients in the country.

The public outcry over his experiment also drew attention to the growing HIV epidemic in China, which has seen a drastic surge in new cases in recent years.

The scientist was educated at Stanford University in the US and recruited back to China as part of Beijing's "Thousand Talents Plan" to reverse brain drain, according to a copy of He's resume published on the website of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen.

SUSTech said in a statement Monday it had terminated the researcher's employment after earlier saying He's work had "seriously violated academic ethics".

He said the twins' DNA was modified using CRISPR, a technique which allows scientists to remove and replace a strand with pinpoint precision.

Experts worry meddling with the genome of an embryo could cause harm not only to the individual but also future generations that inherit the same changes, and say there are too many scientific and technical uncertainties to permit clinical trials.

Following the storm sparked by He's announcement, scientists have called for an international treaty on gene-editing.

Related Stories

The Chinese scientist who claims to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies said Wednesday the trial had been paused, following an international outcry over the highly controversial procedure.

Chinese investigators have determined that the doctor behind the reported birth of two babies whose genes had been edited in hopes of making them resistant to the AIDS virus acted on his own and will be punished for any violations ...

A scientist who upended a Hong Kong conference with his claim to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies cancelled a fresh talk and was heavily criticised by organisers Thursday, who labelled him as irresponsible.

Beijing has ordered an investigation into claims by a Chinese scientist to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies, a move that would be a ground-breaking medical first but which has generated a barrage of ...

The head of a Chinese AIDS support group expressed deep regret Friday for helping a scientist recruit participants for a controversial experiment claiming to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies.

China's government ordered a halt Thursday to work by a medical team that claimed to have helped make the world's first gene-edited babies, as a group of leading scientists declared that it's still too soon to try to make ...

Recommended for you

Past studies have found that a variety of complex networks, from biological systems to social media networks, can exhibit universal topological characteristics. These universal characteristics, however, do not always translate ...

Metasurfaces are two-dimensional (2-D) metamaterials that can control scattering waves of a light beam. Their applications include thin-sheet polarizers, beam splitters, beam steerers and lenses. These structures can control ...

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was launched on April 18 of last year with the primary objective of discovering transiting planets smaller than Neptune around stars bright enough for spectroscopic investigations ...

A pair of researchers at Purdue University has found a way to use a diatomic Ni-Ni catalyst to synthesize cyclopentenes. In their paper published in the journal Science, You-Yun Zhou and Christopher Uyeda describe their method ...

Photocatalysts – materials that trigger chemical reactions when hit by light – are important in a number of natural and industrial processes, from producing hydrogen for fuel to enabling photosynthesis.

Neutron stars are among the densest-known objects in the universe, withstanding pressures so great that one teaspoon of a star's material would equal about 15 times the weight of the moon. Yet as it turns out, protons—the ...

0 comments

Please sign in to add a comment.
Registration is free, and takes less than a minute.
Read more

Click here to reset your password.
Sign in to get notified via email when new comments are made.